Michelle’s honeymoon panic: ‘I was flapping and screaming “SHARK!”‘

Following their high-profile wedding at the end of May, they jetted off to the paradise island nation of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. 

And while Michelle is today gushing about her and husband Mark Wright's experiences there – lots of great food, cocktails by the pool and spa treatments – she also says that one particular incident left her seriously shaken.

"I’m a nervous swimmer and I’d never been snorkelling before, so I was quite worried when we were given our snorkelling equipment on the first day," she explains in a travel piece she wrote for Mail Online.

She adds that while a braver Mark went off into the ocean, she opted to stay in the shallow water.

"Dipping my head under the water… I couldn’t believe the number of fish I saw – all so pretty, and they didn’t seem to pay any attention to me, so that gave me the confidence to venture a bit further, although I am very scared of sharks," she describes. 

However, later in the week she came face-to-face with a rather larger – and more terrifying – creature. 

"I was swimming along, trying to stick near the coral, and I was the first to spot one – a shark," she says. "It was about five or six feet long… I started flapping about, but no one could understand that I was screaming ‘shark!’"

Thankfully for the 28-year-old, the animal eventually "minded its own business and swam off."

"I was petrified, though," she adds.

She also says that she and Mark, also 28, wanted their honeymoon to be "perfect," stating: "It needed to be a place where we felt we had escaped from the rest of the world."

Although returning home to their Essex home last month proved tough. 

"Getting back to the UK was a huge blow," Ms Keegan recalls. "I had the holiday blues for about three weeks afterwards."

She and Mr Wright married on May 24 at the opulent Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, a 16th-century manor.

Hello! magazine exclusively covered the event, reportedly parting with €1.7m for the privilege. 

Trending